TOM HATELEY watched his dad play Champions League with Rangers but he can’t remember a thing about it.

Next season, he might just create a few memories of his own with a Motherwell team that looks ready to take advantage of the 10-point deduction suffered by Rangers in the wake of their plunge into administration.

Motherwell demolished Hearts on Saturday as Rangers were losing to Kilmarnock and if Hateley’s team can beat Hibs on Wednesday at Fir Park, they’ll move to within three points of the struggling champions with 11 games left.

That’s a fight for a Champions League qualifying spot in anybody’s language – and if Rangers don’t come out of administration by March 31, they won’t be allowed to play in Europe anyway, leaving Motherwell in prime position for a crack at Europe’s elite competition.

Hateley, above, whose dad Mark played with such distinction for Rangers, would love to test himself at that level but the right-back, like everybody else at Fir Park, is unwilling to shout from the rooftops about it.

This is a club, remember, which suffered the pain of administration not so long ago and can empathise better than most with the beleaguered Ibrox giant.

Hateley said: “I would have watched my dad play in it but I don’t really have any memories of it. I would have definitely gone. I used to go back then but I can’t really remember the games.

“Everybody would love to play in the Champions League but we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves. It’s a boring cliche but we’ll take each game at a time and come the end of the season we’ll see where we are.

“If it’s getting close near the end of the season it would be a great feat for everyone but it is not something we are looking at right now.

“We were talking about how the Hearts result was great for us but now we go on to Wednesday and it is massive for us to make the gap between ourselves and fourth spot a little bit bigger, then push on from there.

“You don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself and start chasing things like that.”

Nevertheless, Motherwell are in a chase for second and although they would love to get there, the feelings for Rangers’ plight are obvious.

Hateley added: “It’s a hard time for everyone at Rangers and nobody likes to see a team going through what they are going through.

“I’ve spoken to a few of the Motherwell boys who were here a few years ago when we went into administration and they were saying what a hard time it is. Unfortunately, it is part of football and it is out of the players’ control.

“Rangers are a massive club going through a horrible time and it is not nice to look at this situation. It is one of those things that will sort itself out in time.”

The Fir Park full-back was delighted with his team’s performance against Hearts and believes now that they have sorted out their home form, after going four months without a win on their own patch earlier in the season, they can keep moving in the right direction.

He said: “We knew how big a game it was going to be against Hearts. It was always going to be massive and we did well. We covered each other all over the park and when we went down to 10 men, I don’t think anybody was particularly worried.

“You like to think people coming here think it’s a fortress and we are getting back to that in the last month or so. We have scored a lot of goals here recently and that’s the way it should be.”